Sérgio Vieira de Mello
Sérgio Vieira de Mello Biography Vieira de Mello was born in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro on March 15th, 1948. His father was named Arnaldo Vieira de Mello, while his mother was named Gilda dos Santos. He had an older sister whose name was Sônia. Sérgio's father Arnaldo was a diplomat who later retired compulsorily by the military dictatorship that ran Brazil at the time. He would often during much of his early life accompany his father as they often traveled around the world on various missions. Eventually by the time he finished secondary school he went to study at the University of Paris in France, where he would get his degree and master's degree for teaching philosophy. He eventually would become a UN official by the year of 1969, the same year his father also became one. Sérgio would then spend most of his life working at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and serving in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions in Bangladesh during its independence from Pakistan in 1971. By the following year of 1972, Sérgio was active in the African nation of Sudan as it was experiencing a bloody civil war at time, to which during his time in Sudan he provided food, water, shelter, and medical supplies for those in poverty. He would later relocate to Cyprus in 1974, which at the time Turkey invaded the northern part of the island due to having a huge population of Turkish people. After that he went back to continuing his field assignments where he traveled to the Portuguese-speaking country of Mozambique which at the time was experiencing a refugee crisis as many Africans were fleeing from Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe) to escape from a country governed by a white minority that segregated the natives. Sérgio would end up becoming in charge of the UNHCR operations in Mozambique as it the nation was in a civil war (Mozambican Civil War, which occurred right after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal). He would also serve as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia, in which Sérgio became the first and only UN representative ever to hold talks with the Khmer Rouge. During the early 1990's, Sérgio was heavily involved in clearings of land mines in Cambodia and Yugoslavia seeing that people shouldn't have to still be cautious after a war long over. After working on the refugee situation in central Africa, he was promoted to Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees in the year of 1996 and he became UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator two years later. He would hold this position simultaneously with others until January 2001. He was a special UN envoy in Kosovo after the end of Serbian control over the former Yugoslav province in 1999. Before becoming the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2002, Sérgio was made in charge of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) '''alongside Lieutenant General Jaime de los Santos of the Philippines. During this time him and Jaime de los Santos were facilitating emergency rehabilitation of physical infrastructure; administering East Timor and creating structures for sustainable governance and the rule of law; and helping in the draft of a new constitution and conducting elections. In May of 2003, Sérgio Vieira de Mello was appointed as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq. Which was an appointment that was originally intended to only last for four mouths. He originally turned down the appointment until he was persuaded by President George W. Bush and US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Sérgio Vieira de Mello had charmed Bush at a meeting in March of 2003, where the two of them discussed the human rights situation in Guantanamo Bay, which is a controversial issue for the United States. Sérgio would form a bond with Bush by telling him that he had authorized military force to help combat terrorism while he was as the UN Transitional Administrator in East Timor. '''Death While serving as a Special Representative of the UN Secret General in Iraq, he would end killed along with many other victims during the Canal Hotel bombing. To which the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist group Al-Qaeda would later claim responsibility for the attack. A later message made by Al-Qaeda said that Sérgio Vieira de Mello was killed by them alongside his fellow co-workers since he was considered a "crusader" that extracted part of Islamic land (East Timor) after the Indonesian regime committed genocide on the small country with a Christian majority. Even before his death Sérgio Vieira de Mello was considered a suitable candidate for becoming the next Secretary-General of the United Nations, and it is quite possible had he not of died he would've in fact became the Secretary-General at some point. His death was widely mourned worldwide, largely on the account of his good and kind reputation for his effective work and promotion of peace. Legacy Even long after Sérgio Vieira de Mello died he managed to gain a lot of legacy for the kind and heroic actions he did during his time working in the United Nations. He received numerous posthumous awards and honors including the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. A organization named the Sérgio Vieira de Mello Foundation was created in 2007, in honor of his memory, pursue his ideals and continue his unfinished missions worldwide. The United Nations would end up creating a special international day named World Humanitarian Day in which is held every year on August 19th, to which is the date that Sérgio and his co-workers died while making the world a better place. As a result World Humanitarian Day celebrates the ones who sacrificed their lives to make the world a better place. And in the Italian city of Bologna, a street would end up being named after him in his honor. Category:Deceased Heroes Category:Died with Honor Category:Kind Heroes Category:Lawful Good Category:Leader Category:Male Heroes Category:Pacifists